There were several "societies" in London, chiefly com- posed of persons who were desirous of spiritual I'ellow- ship and instruction. Some of them were under Mo- ravian teachers, others were made up of Churchmen. Wesley very naturally associated with these societies, and preached to them and to such Episcopal congrega- tions as were open to his ministrations. But his exceed- ing earnestness, his theory of instantaneous conversion through faith, and, above all, the remarkable spiritual results of his preaching gave such offence to the vicars and rectors of the churches that, after a hv.' months, he found his further access to church pulpits very general- ly refused, and his sphere of operations limited, in the main, to the rooms of the societies, to prison chapels, and to hospital wards. Neither was there anv proba- bility that he would be presented to any church living. At this critical moment his friend Whitefield sent him a very pressing invitation to visit Bristol. After some hesitation he went thither; and his High-Church sensi- bilities were shocked by seeing that eloquent evangelist
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preach to an immense congregation in the open air. '•I coukl scarcely reconcile niyselfat first," he observes, " to this strange way of preaching iu tlie lields . . . hav- ing been all my life (till very lately) so tenacious of every point relating to decency ami order that I should have thought the saving of souls almost a sin if it had not been in a church." But seeing Whitefield's field preaching divinely blessed, he contpiercd his life-long prejudices, and, standing on an eminence near the city of Bristol, preached for the first time in the open air to about three thousand souls. Thus the problem of his evangelistic career was solved. The great purpose of his life could be accomplished in spite of closed church doors. He did not know it then, but he really made organic ]Methodism, with its itinerant ministry, possible on that memorable Monday, April 2, 1739, when, with a courage which in his circumstances was truly sublime, he crossed the Kubicon by becoming a field preacher.
The success of his out-door ministrations soon made it necessary to erect a chapel for the accommodation of his converts at Bristol. Lack of ability on the part of the people compelled him to assume the financial re- sponsibilities of this enterprise. To protect his pecuni- ary interests thus acquired, and to secure the nse of its pulpit to himself or his representatives, he felt obliged to vest the title to the chapel in himself. All this, to liis mind, bore the aspect of an undesirable burden forced upon his shoulders by unsought circumstances. But it proved to be the inception of that system of vesting his chapel titles in himself but for which the organic unity and growth of the Wesleyan societies could not have been secured. In adopting it, Wesley was unconscious- ly working on the foundations of a Church the ideal of which had not as yet arisen even in his imagination.
V. Uis First Socieiies. — A still more important step in the same direction was taken in London, July 20, 1740. This was nothing less than the formation of a society, under his exclusive direction, at his chapel in London, then recently acquired, and known as the Foundery. Six months before he had organized a " United Society" in connection with the Moravians at Fetter Lane. But, owing to errors in theorj' and wrongs in practice which had appeared among its members, Wesley thought prop- er to invite all who adhered to him to separate from the Moravians. Some eighteen or nineteen accepted his invitation. These persons he organized into a so- ciety, as stated above, which, though not intended to be a separation, either on his part or theirs, from the Church of England, must be regarded historically as a germ of the Wesleyan Church. It was the nucleus around which the societies that recognised Mr. Wesley as their ecclesiastical head subsequently clustered.
The rapid increase of his United Societies, and his en- forced absences from them while on his evangelical tours, soon made it apparent that some means pf watch- ing over their spiritual growth was needed. No plan presented itself to his mind until, in Februarj-, 1742, while his followers in Bristol were discussing ways and means of paying their chapel debt, one of them proposed that the society should be divided into bodies of twelve, one of whom should be a sort of leader to collect from each a penny per week. Wesley approved. The plan worked well. In reporting their receipts some of these leaders spoke of having disorderly members on their list. " It struck me immediately," wrote A^'esley, " this is the thing, the very thing, we have wanted so long." Act- ing promptly and with characteristic energy on this suggestion, he requested all the collectors to make par- ticular inquiry into the lives of the memljers on their respective lists. Six weeks later he divided his London society into similar classes, under the leadership of " earnest and sensible men," who were instructed to gain "a sure, thorough knowledge of each member on his list." At first they did this duty by personal visita- tions; but this method being found inconvenient, the members were required to meet tlieir leaders once a week for prayer and religious conversation. Thus the